Dear Friends,
On the auspicious occasion of Durga Puja, I, on behalf of Swisspuja
Executive Puja Committee 2013, extend our hearty greetings and
good wishes to all of you.
This year, 2013 marks the 10th anniversary celebrations by
Swisspuja. It all started in 2004 at the banquet hall of the “Taj
Palace” Restaurant in Zurich. The restaurant owners and Swisspuja
members Sikha and Sekhar Dhar most generously supported the
startup. We are thankful to them and a host of other individuals but
for whose unflinching support, strong belief and tireless eﬀorts we
could not have reached this milestone.
One of the highlights of our Durgapuja, since inception, is the
adherence of puja timings, to the Bengali almanac, starting from
Sasthi through till Dashami. The Puja schedule and the performance
of the elaborate rituals give an authentic taste of the Durga Puja
celebrations.
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As per the traditions in Bengal, the event continues to remain open to all during the
four days, where visitors are welcome to join without any prior registration. To
accommodate the ever increasing flow of visitors from Switzerland and surrounding
countries, this year we could move to a more spacious and better equipped venue in
Langnau am Albis. The new hall allows us to organize the event in a much more
comfortable ambience and also introduce new events. We express our sincere
gratitude to the local authorities, for their flexibility and co-operation.
One of our major focus this year was to improve Communication with our community.
It has been our endeavor to send frequent mailers to keep you updated of the puja
preparations and we are delighted to have received positive and constructive
feedback from many of you. We re-launched the Swisspuja website to provide a
refreshing look, feel and additional content.
The roots of Swisspuja goes back to India. Like all Indians, Persons of Indian Origin
and friends, we were greatly anguished at the immense loss of human life and
property when tragedy struck Uttarakhand. We took a special initiative to collect
funds from our community to oﬀer our humble support to the people living there.
Thanks to the community, it was very successful. Swisppuja will also make a special
donation after closing of the accounts, subject to approval at the GBM.
Finally, we convey our deep appreciation to all members who have supported the
event in various ways e.g. contribution, sponsorship, advertisement collection,
hosting of artists, venue arrangement, etc. We look forward to your continued
patronage in coming years.
Wish you all very happy festive days and a nice & enjoyable time with Swisspuja.
With warm regards and best wishes;
Chinmoy Chakraborty
On behalf of Puja Committee 2013

receiving BSc degree from
the Scottish Church College in
Calcutta and thereafter diploma from
the Printing School of Calcutta,
Sushilda, at the young age of 22
years, came to Switzerland in 1961 to
attend an apprenticeship at
Kummerly & Frey in Berne. From
there on, a long journey into the most
important second phase of his life
started: integration into the Swiss
way of life, come to know his future
wife Ursula, build up a young
Indian community away from home,
practise Indian cooking, to name a
few.
Sushilda and Ursula were married in Konolfingen in 1966, got initially settled in
Zollikhofen. They became proud parents of a son Omit and a daughter Konika. After
professional stopovers in Kloten and Spiez the family finally got settled in Thun in
Kanton Berne.
In 1976, with the motivation and energetic help of his wife Ursula, he took a big step
and an important milestone in his life by founding their own business called Kalpana
Textiles for importing textiles mainly from India. To counterbalance this hardship, he
read extensively books, devoted passionately his leisure time to Bengali music,
literature, philosophy and travelling. At the same time he cultivated his talent and
enjoyed in writing Bengali texts, poetries, essays, stories and articles on various
subjects of life.
Sushilda was a humble personality for whom the inner values were very important.
For him charity, humanity, to be there for each other in the family and love for them
were not empty words. He lived these values in his daily life, with full of joy for life and
warmth and love from heart.

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Except for last 2 years, when his illness made it impossible for him to write, Sushilda
always wrote articles in Bengali for our Puja magazine. In the three years, from 2008
until 2010, while I was secretary of the Puja committee, I also edited the Puja
magazine. During this time I closely and intensively worked with Sushilda. He sent me
his handwritten articles by mail and I edited and corrected or made changes in them
on my PC and sent them by e-mail back to him for approval. It was quite a
cherishable memory on my part to relish.
I have admired and experienced him as a person engaged in community life, in
dealing and debating, critically but remaining fair and not missing the humour, in
various aspects of life like politics, literature, social networks, music, film, etc. But
with time his illness made him unable to practise all these cultural activities.
th

On 14 August, it was for his family grief and great solace at the same time to see
him released from his pains and to bid him farewell at home and thus he could calmly
and peacefully depart for his last journey. May Sushilda’s soul be in eternal peace.

Always with a smile and shining
eyes, Sitadi had a winning face that
dominated her dainty presence,
prevailing dignity, respect and
aﬀection. Whenever she told us
something she started with “ jano
bhai” - you know brother -, to all she
was “Didi”, the elder sister. She was
a gifted narrator and she spoke in a
low and soft voice and, at the same
time she could be very humorous.
She would relate an anecdote or a
minor experience with such a
vivacity that they would turn into an
interesting story. I dare to say that
she liked “adda” like many Bengalis, and needless to say she loved food.
It was the summer of 1978 at a local feast of the settlement Rüti in Ostermundigen
near Bern, where I met Sitadi for the first time. Before I came to Switzerland I never
lived out of Kolkata or even out of my home. Arriving in Bern only a month before,
beside my husband I hardly knew anybody, and the local language was as strange as
the weather in this alpine country. Meeting Sitadi changed the situation. She greeted
me with open arms and her open heart wrapped me in a warm feeling. It gave me

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much comfort. I learnt many things from her about this new country as she gave
many indispensible hints and information about living here far away from home.
Looking back through the times it seems to me that I had known her always.
One day I was with Sitadi when she met a group of ladies, and the conversation was
in the local language, which I could not follow at all. I was gazing from one face to the
other, and I was thinking I’d never be able to get hold of this language; a sort of
sadness came over me. I assume my face must have conveyed my state of mind to
Sitadi. Looking at me she said, in her usual gentle and calm manner: ”…don’t worry,
you’ll learn it “, as if it were a simple matter. Her face, her eyes, her words, she
altogether appeared to me full of hope. It touched me. I felt a sensation of
confidence.
For Sitadi culture was something that was written in capital letters. She nurtured her
deep interest in literature and philosophy by serious readings and discussions. Her
ardour for art, literature and music was rooted in her poetical sensibility. At the same
time she had a wise way of looking at things. It was an overt worldly wisdom. Visiting
exhibitions, concerts attending lectures, taking part in women-groups were her
regular activities, an inseparable part of her life. Even when her advanced age brought
her weak health and she needed a walking stick, she did not hesitate to travel from
Bern to Zurich to see an exhibition at the Rietberg Museum or to attend a music
conference in some other part of Switzerland. And she would feel elated. She was a
member of reading-circles, the English-literature Club, where selected books were
discussed. Unforgettable for me was that afternoon when I visited her in the hospital,
she in her last days, with her usual smile she regretted that she would not be able to
present a book to the reading circle at the next meeting.
Born in Bhagalpur, in Bihar, Sitadi attended Robindranath Thakur’s school in
Shantiniketan before she studied English literature in Kolkata. Already in her youth
she was involved in social work. She was engaged in helping poor villagers for a nonprofit organisation and through this charitable work Sitadi came to know her later
husband Alfred Bollinger, who was working there as an engineer. They met in Kolkata
in 1952 - apparently over a cup of tea. They married in Switzerland in 1956 after
Sitadi’s arrival here in Switzerland. The marriage brought three sons and a daughter.
After a while in Thun they moved and stayed at various places before they settled in
Rüti in Ostermundigen, where they lived for 37 years. Here they were active in the
community life and for the church as well. They founded a committee to look after the
interests of the locals, organised small family-gardens, oﬀered courses in English and
other subjects etc. So during the 1980ties Sitadi was active in taking care of
Cambodian refugees. As she said in an interview, she was always concerned about
human beings. This humanist mind led her also to the “comprendi?” - a Caritas
organisation for qualified translation for a better understanding in intercultural
matters. Here she helped Bengali-speaking immigrants from Bangladesh.
Active in the Indian Association Berne, she became later, with her husband, Honorary
Member – Sitadi was always present at the cultural programmes. On the occasion of
the Diwali festival she produced with her children scenes from Mahabharata or
Ramayana. Later once she arranged a dance drama with her grandchildren based on
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THINKING OF SITA-DI

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THINKING OF SITA-DI

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songs of Robindranath Thakur. And it was the poems of this great poet she loved to
recite and she did it with sensitivity and emotion. It was Sitadi’s idea to stage the
well-known short story of Robindranath Thakur, the “Kabuliwala”, for the celebration
of Bengali-Bijoya in Bern, and she gathered and directed the participants.
In the Swiss-India Association, as a member of the executive committee, she actively
took part in organizing lectures on various socio-cultural aspects of both countries.
She participated and enjoyed Durgapuja in Zurich organised by the Swisspuja
committee as well as at the Vedantic Centre in Geneva. With her husband, who also
practiced yoga and meditation, she used to visit this institution on diﬀerent
occasions, was a helping hand and devoted herself in the teachings of Vedanta. Also
here she found her spiritual guidance.
Right from the beginning, when she came to Switzerland, as she said later, she did
not feel estranged and she embraced the local life with open heart and with her usual
enthusiasm. Her interest was in the real essence of cultures howsoever diﬀerent they
may appear. She always was looking for the unifying element in diverse modes of
belief and thought. In her living room there was a figure of the dancing Shiva on an
alcove and over her desk were hanging pictures of Jesus Christ, Buddha and
Ramakrishna. She felt at home in both the worlds, in the western as well as in the
eastern.

SERENDIPITY? Leo defines it as
an accidental, pleasant surprise.
Was my coming to Switzerland, ten
years back exactly that?
As a child, Switzerland was a country
that I had seen only in glossy calendars
and magazines. I remember a calendar

PAINTING BY THE AUTHOR
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PUJA PATRIKA 2013

page with a colourful Swiss valley, covered in purple and yellow flowers. I had
carefully placed that photo beneath a glass on my study table. Someday, I planned to
paint it.
After my wedding, I was imported from India without delay – a desi bride who came
with a VIP suitcase packed with desi ghee, benarasis, kolhapuris and Haldiram’s kaju
barfis.
We arrived on 2nd of August, a Sunday. After coming out of Zurich airport, I was
worried that I had perhaps acquired an acute hearing problem, during transit. Reason
being, I could hear absolutely nothing. No honking of cars, no shouting on the streets,
no loudspeakers, not even stray dogs barking! My Swiss-born, freshly minted
husband was quite stupefied when I asked him, “Ekhane ki aaj curfew cholche?”
It had taken him several seconds just to comprehend my question.
My in-laws had come to pick us up from the airport. As their car whizzed past Zurich
towards Basel (where my husband lived), I soaked in the surrounding beauty from the
window. I picturised myself in Kajol’s seat riding a red convertible with Sharukh (and
his parents), in a DDLJ scene. Smooth and broad roads, with no traﬃc jams,
surrounded by green valleys’ polka dotted by white cows—how beautiful it all looked.
I was impressed.
After reaching Basel, we went straight to a Sardar’s restaurant—as a special treat on
my arrival.
The restaurant looked more like an extended living room than a public place. Our
sudden entry catapulted the whole place into action. Like a mechanical toy which
suddenly springs into action after the key is rotated clockwise, a beaming Sardarni
emerged from nowhere carrying plates of hot samosas accompanied by forks and
paper napkins. Did I have to eat samosas with a fork?
What I remember most from that evening is listening to dulcet melodies of Kishore
Kumar in the background, which resonated deep inside me and pulled out a sublime
emotion which I did not want to acknowledge—a feeling mixed with nostalgia and
sadness.
But side by side there was also a feeling of adventure. After all, I had reached my
calendar country— all I needed now was a canvas, a brush and some colours!
Days passed, weeks rolled into months and I got transformed from a Miss Dutta
working for ‘The Times of India’ (TOI) in Mumbai into a Mrs. Bose, who longingly
looked at German newspapers and dared to decipher none.

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10 YEARS IN SWITZERLAND: A RECOLLECTION

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10 YEARS IN SWITZERLAND: A RECOLLECTION

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Back in Mumbai, call it serendipity (again) I had the opportunity of actively witnessing
glam events like ‘Miss India’ and ‘Filmfare Awards’ as a TOI employee. On one
occasion I was in charge of Priyanka Chopra’s Miss World tiara for few minutes in a
green room. That evening I also had to help Preity Zinta find a seat in the front row.
Several nights in a chain I couldn’t sleep and would levitate inches above ground also
during the day. Then, the following year my sister took me to the sets of KBC (Who
will be a Millionaire) where she became a winner after quizzing with Amitabh
Bacchan. I was finally in a star-studded rocket soaring high, heading for other
galaxies and far beyond. Maybe the rocket changed its course, coz it dropped me
mid-way in the Alps as ‘Mrs. Bose’ and disappeared.
Initially, to avoid the frustration of not understanding German, I used to glue to
Indians and ache to read something in English; or hear someone speak Bangla. That
was the phase, when we made some very good Indian friends. Most of them were
PhD students whom we met either at Aggarwal’s or in someone’s party. We have
stayed together ever since, a cohort group sharing similar experiences: one room
apartments, new jobs, shifting to three room apartments, impromptu trips to Locarno
film festivals, learning to swim, drive, and changing diapers. On birthdays or house
warming parties we keep meeting. Nowadays our parties revolve around sippy cups
and super active babies. These friends are like relatives—our children’s mashis and
meshos in Switzerland.
After living here for ten years, I feel more acclimatized to Switzerland’s grey sky and
my wardrobe is better equipped with ‘four season jackets’. Munching salad at lunch,
looking into the eye and saying “Zum Wohl”, watching a Deepika Pandukone movie in
youtube and dozing oﬀ with Jhumpa Lahiri’s ‘Unaccustomed Earth’ – I feel quite
comfortable in my niche.
My German is still at ‘learning to float’ level so most of the newspapers are treated as
picture books. Despite the frequency, even now I can’t comfortably say, “GueteMorge”, both words nonchalantly reminding me of the Bangla sound alikes. Sparing
adulations in conversations and appreciating the simplicity in Swiss people’s lifestyle
is genuine though. My eardrum is also now 90% ‘Swiss-made’— used to the silence
level.
Years pass. Families grow. As a mother of two small kids, my daytime is spent in
several creative activities, like how to hold back my infant from biting into wires or
devising schemes to push food into two unyielding mouths. Once they sleep, I start
working from home as a Publications Manager (in pajamas). Finally, when my battery
level drops I catch up with some sleep. In my sleep, sometimes I dream of a calendar
page with purple valleys. And I wonder: are we chasing a dream or, are we living in a
dream? Maybe a bit of both. As Bill Clinton once mentioned you become old when
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PUJA PATRIKA 2013

you have more memories than dreams. We have to work to make our dreams come
true.
Work has always been an essential part of my life—a therapy against seasonal and
temperamental malaise. After working in Switzerland, I feel sad to see the bias and
handicap against working mothers. Thankfully there also exists a professional world
which comprises of men and women who have gone through similar phases and
therefore support those who need to multitask. Work is fun when complemented with
festivities. For me, what has remained constant over the years is the excitement
around Durga Puja. When I receive the Swisspuja card, I feel the same excitement
which I used to feel in India. The long holidays and planning around it. Shivering in the
autumn breeze and listening to Mahalaya. It is when I reopen my old VIP suitcase,
which I brought from India ten years back and run my fingers through delicately
woven benarasi and silk saris and pull out antique gold ornaments from treasure
troves. I look forward to celebrate our ‘Indianness’ and renew a long lost childhood
memory of home. It is when, I can just close my eyes and feel, “Now I have arrived”.

Chicken: usually cooked skinless as it is healthier and the flesh takes on the spice flavor. I
personally prefer to use chicken with bones like the thigh and leg pieces as the bones give more
flavor and the flesh is softer and tastier than breast fillets, which are dryer too. Marinating
overnight makes the chicken soft and the sauce more intensive.
Coconut: when using fresh coconut, the nut is shaken and one hears water sloshing inside, it is
good. Break the outer shell with a hammer; separate the shell from the brown fruit inside. Peel the
brown skin with a peeler then cut into pieces and mince in a mixer fitted with a blade. Coconut
flesh can be frozen in any form in a plastic bag or box.
Spices: spices bought in an Indian store are intensiver than in Swiss super markets.
Oil: I usually use sunflower or rapsöl for daily cooking. For special dishes like biriyani (dish made
of rice with meat, chicken or fish) use ghee. One can use very mild olive oil, distel or trauben oil.
Avocado and coconut oils are healthy alternatives as they have no trans-fat.
Onion: I prefer not to use red onions or spring onions for making a sauce (curry). It is important
that the onions are really finely chopped. The taste, consistence and color of the sauce depend
on the onions.
Yoghurt: I prefer the thicker varieties of natural yoghurts, e.g. 500 ml tubs available in
supermarkets or 750gm from COOP. Stickfest 180-250gm are also good. Expensive yoghurts like
Bifidus and Greek yoghurts are good for raitas or desserts.
For any further questions or help with Indian food culture contact me: info@cookindian.ch,
www.cookindian.ch.

... one day
BY SOURAV RAY
We are lions in a circus We often roar without a purpose
And jump through silly hoops and flames.
Like puppets on a string,
We strut, we dance, we sing –
But, in ‘tune’ with our Master’s funny games.
Although “this world is a stage”,
We're within an endless cage,
Desperately searching for its keys…
Conmen laugh and play the fiddle,
While our lives remain a ‘riddle’;
So, when will the charades ever cease?
One day, soon, the tables will turn;
The balance will tilt and fires will burn!
The skies will fall upon us in endless rains…
Awoken – man, woman and child Will revisit their roots – return to the Wild;
Free, at last, from their shackles and their chains!

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RAINDROPS AND A PRAYER

BY RIYA SENGUPTA

The wind blows incessantly, feral and free,
Shadows cast their spell as clouds as whisked away
To places beyond the last piece of sky you can see,
In a blissful merger of blue with grey.

Verses seem to from near and afar,
Riding on the backs of the storm and the rain
colors smudge across this endless azure canvas
that strives to down the qualms and the pain.

The storm provokes prayers, silent and strong Questions the foundations of tomorrows we‘ve laid...
And in the spaces between the flurry of raindrops
I think of memories that are yet to be made.

bothering her. She asked me why cannot she see God. Hmmm....this threw us back
to an earlier discussion where I had told her that God is in everyone and everything.
She was particularly upset because the thakur ghar is in her bed room and yet God
did not come to her when she had a nightmare! She said I was really close to Thakur
and yet he did not come to help me. So her baba asked her who did come and help
her. She said baba and mamma! Then her baba asked P whether baba and mamma
were able to help her. She said yes. This started us on how God usually does not
come directly to help but sends help in the form of other people or circumstances to
help. She seemed to find that reasoning quite adequate but 2 days later...

P was watching Krishna and she said why has Krishna thakur come himself to help
people when he could have asked his mamma or baba to help as baby Krishna is
really so small. Now this did get our thinking wheels running. The only way we could
explain this was link this back to earlier discussions on avatars. I told her that for
most problems thakur gives us the strength and brains to find a solution. If that is not
enough we are blessed with friends, family and teachers who help us. Thakur comes
himself when sometimes there are too many dushtu people around who do ouchies to
others and cannot be stopped by others. As King Kansa was really dushtu and he
sent a lot of dushtu people who did bad magic to do ouchies, Krishna thakur had to
use his magical heavenly powers to stop them. She asked me whether it was like
asking the police to help when we cannot help catch someone who breaks glass
windows or glass bottles on the street. I agreed it was slightly similar but for God to
come it had to be a really terrible situation. Pat came the next question - Would God
come if a volcano erupted? I said God may come if the whole earth was just full of
erupting volcanoes and people had nowhere to go. P pondered over this and said
-"Ok"! I blew a long sigh of relief!

The Vedic scriptures unfold the eternal truth, lying dormant in the bosom of the
unmanifested universe at the very outset of the creation, in all its entirety since time
immemorial.
The truth in all its facets, with all its beauty and significance reveals the mystries of
the nature to the human beings and of the human beings to the nature through
vibrations, through light and sound. The philosophy, the art and the science are born.
The rotation of the earth around the sun, the changing seasons, days and nights,
various shades of light and darkness, so also various emotions (rasas) of the human
minds! The interplay of nature and person, subject and object moves through the
frontiers of space and time.
Two citations below illustrate the truth with its inherent beauty. The first citation, since
time unknown, stems from the Rig-Veda, depicting the eternal attraction between the
Dawn (uṣā) and the Sun (sūrya), the feminine (nāyikā) and masculine (nāyaka) natural
entities (devatā) or energies (śakti).

The translation: « Just as a young man follows his beloved, so does the Sun the
3

Dawn, that shining Goddess. She becomes his consort. «

A Vedic scholar's comment on the natural/supernatural phenomena around us:
« ... While the Vedic texts present to you a little picture of the mystries of this creation,
they by and by lift you up a little beyond the physical or metaphysical reality. They
raise you from creation to the Creator.They take you from the Sun to the Sun that
shines behind the Sun, to the Fire that glows behind the mundane fire, they take you
to Light that enlightens all the lights familiar to us. They take you to Beauty and
4

Pleasure behind the so-called beauty and pleasure that exist in our everyday life. «
The second citation, here only the first two lines of a love song, written and
1

Rig-Veda I, 115, 2.

2

Transliteration of the original Sanskrit (Devanāgarī) script following the Sanskrit
transliteration convention.

3

Translated by Raimundo Panikkar in his book The Vedic Experience Mantramañjarī: An
Anthology of the Vedas for modern man and contemporary celebration, Darton, Longman &
Todd, London, 1979, p. 164.

composed by Rabindranath Tagore when he was thirty-six years old (i.e. in the year
1897); rever- berates the lamentation of the ashamed young lady (nāyikā) for having
missed to exper- ience the golden moment of the union between the Dawn and the
Sun at the very break of the day:
« Oকন যািমনী না Oযেত জাগােল না, Oবলা হল মির লােজ।

The translation: O, why didst thou not wake me up while the night was still prevailing?
Now I feel so much ashamed at the outbreak of the day. How may I become active
8

again with my limbs laden with shyness?

The gross- (sthula) aspects of both the processes (Mantra, Song), with regard to the
states of the subject and object, basic disposition (bhāva) of the subject as well as
the subject/ object relations exhibit strong resemblances, while the inherent fine(sukṣma) aspects are practically identical, which here is the longing of the Sun, here a
personified deity, and the mistress (nāyikā) for the transcendence of his/her
consciousness from the lower reality to the higher reality.
5

Arabinda and the book about his Art & Life
Arabinda Roy, born in 1938 in India and now living in Rüti since 1974, has written a
book mainly about his extensive work on sculpture. In addition, he also writes and
illustrates about places associated with his life, viz. Zurich, Kolkata, etc. The book has
been published in three languages, viz. German, English and Bengali.
Initially Arabinda worked as designer of weaving machines at the “Maschinenfabrik
Rüti” for 22 years. After his early retirement and closing down of the factory, he
wanted to persuade sculpturing as hobby by self learning and doing. The availability
of space at the closed down factory was just ideal in time to welcome him to open an
atelier. He processed various types of stones like sandstone, verrucano, marble and
shell limestone, just to mention a few. But it did not hinder him to use unconventional
material, e.g. he made a sculpture out of a piece taken out of a renewed road in Rüti,
material consisting of asphalt, pebble stone, stone chippings and bitumen.
After creating quite a number of sculptures, Arabinda thought it is time to present his
art creation and introducing his book about it to public and on April 13 & 14 this year
he gave a vernissage at Joweidzentrum 13a, Rüti. Since then the atelier is open and
can be visited after making an appointment with Arabinda on telephone no. 055-240
70 69 or by e-mail to arabmnju@hispeed.ch.
The book is available at a special price of CHF 15.- for puja visitors.
- Jyotiprasad Majumder, Zurich

Zurich International School has the distinction of oﬀering unique trips abroad in
June, the end of the school year, to its students in grades 10, 11 and 12 each year.
These trips are amazing opportunities for students to leave their comfort zones in
school classrooms and travel to exciting locations such as Sri Lanka, Morocco,
Iceland and many more. Students have to apply for their desired trip location in
November by submitting an essay outlining their reason for wanting to go to their first
location choice, and also name their second and third choice. I was lucky to be given
my first choice, Tanzania. From November until May, I and the seventeen other
students chosen for the trip and three teachers met every month to prepare for our
journey to Tanzania. Finally the month of June rolled around and it was the time of
year everyone had been anxiously waiting for: end of exams, impending high school
graduation and our trip to Tanzania!
After roughly twelve hours of traveling we reached the international airport of Moshi in
Tanzania. It had been a long journey. I had woken up at 4 in the morning to make our
early morning flight to Amsterdam. From Schiphol airport, Amsterdam we embarked
on a 9 hour flight- a flight on which inconveniently my TV was not working. To say the
least, the gentle African breeze was a refreshing change and a nice welcome from the
long flight and the cold and rainy “summer” we were having in June in Zurich. The
large cockroach nesting on the fingerprint scanner at Moshi passport control was a
subtle sign telling us this trip was going to be an adventure we wouldn’t soon forget.
That night, as soon as our heads hit the pillows at the Kishari guest house, provided
by the International School of Moshi (ISM), we were sound asleep.
The next two days we worked hard at a local school, laying a concrete floor for a new
multipurpose hall. We formed human chains and moved the concrete along by
passing hubcap sized pans filled to the brim. By the end of the day, our arms felt like
limp noodles and we returned home bruised, sore and filthy. To make up for it, in the
evening we were able to make use of ISM’s facilities. We spent our time before dinner
lounging by the pool and playing badminton. We even caught a glimpse of the peak
of Mount Kilimanjaro. By the second day at the local school, we were a well oiled
machine. We worked harder and were able to accomplish a lot more. Our reward
came in the form of spending time with the students who would make use of
multipurpose hall- their gratitude was humbling. That night, a cultural night was held
for us with many diﬀerent spectacles. Incredible dancers and amazing acrobats
performed, leaving us speechless by the end of the night. The next morning, we
drove and then hiked up to the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. While there we learned
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about the Roots and Shoots programme carried out by the Jane Goodall Institute.
Spending the morning planting avocado trees and helping the locals cook helped us
understand the local Tanzanian tribal culture. Also, eating the delicious food prepared
helped as well. ;) In the afternoon, playing with the children at a local orphanage was
a lot of fun.
The following two days had to be highlight of my trip. We drove to another city two
hours away called Arusha. There, we switched from our big bus to four Jeeps. Each
jeep had four or five students, a teacher and of course the driver. During the course of
our first three days in Tanzania, my roommates and I had accumulated a huge bag of
chips, sweets and other goodies we had bought at local supermarkets, solely for our
African safari ride in the jeep. We dreamed of spotting animals far away while
munching on a packet of Lays. Needless to say, everyone wanted to travel in our jeep
to get access to our stash of goodies. From Arusha, we drove another two hours in
the jeeps to reach Tarangire National Park where we had the first safari. There, the
roof of our jeep was lifted up, so that we could peek from the top of the jeep at the
animals. We spent three hours spotting an array of animals including lions, giraﬀes,
elephants, zebras, wildebeests, waterbucks, impalas and several others. In the
evening, we stayed at a camp site resort where each “room” was a typical tent with
two beds inside. The next morning we woke up at 5 in the morning to Ngorogoro
Crater where a stunning landscape awaited us. It took an hour with the jeeps to first
ascend up to the crater and then another hour to descend into the inside of the crater.
This safari was also incredible and seeing animals in their natural habitat is not like
seeing them in the confines of a zoo. Surrounded by the beautiful scenery while being
at arm’s length from so many animals made us feel at one with nature and appreciate
the beauty of animals and the landscape. In the evening we returned to the camp site
resort, after spending time with the Maasai tribe in the afternoon. Another cultural
night with the Iraki tribe was in store for us that night.
The next morning we drove back to Arusha and switched back to our big bus. We
then visited a coﬀee plantation and craft market where we spent time learning about
diﬀerent kinds of coﬀee, observing glass blowing and making beaded bracelets. In
the afternoon we visited another market and drove back to Kishari house, our home
for our first three nights in Tanzania. The next day was our last as in the evening we
would be flying back. In the morning we went to a local market. We ended our trip on
a good note by visiting a 14m waterfall where yours truly, as well as fifteen other
students, jumped oﬀ. I would be lying if I didn’t mention that some coaxing was
involved to convince everyone to jump. In the evening we drove to Moshi
International Airport, our whole group talking about our trip on the way. The
experience was one of a lifetime as we were able to experience so much in a short
period of time. Our time in Tanzania will be a memory none of us will soon forget.
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